A Birthday Surprise
by GhedahrianVampress
Summary: Te'ijal has a surprise in store for Galahad's 150th birthday, and he's not quite sure how to feel about it...


Te'ijal smiled to herself as she entered the living room, finding Galahad in his usual place on the sofa, reading a book on the art of cheese making. He had given up on his suicide mission, resigning himself to the fact that he was a vampire. At least for now anyway. Te'ijal was sure that he would try again, and when that happened, she would track him down, and drag him home again. It was fun to her. She enjoyed it because it gave her the chance to get away from Ghed'ahre for a while and spend some time in the land of the living. Unfortunately, it appeared that Galahad was not having fun at the moment.

Believe it or not, Te'ijal actually felt sorry for her husband. The fact that he was reading a book about cheese making, a book that he happened to have read at least a hundred times, was more than enough to make her pity him. Over the last century or so, she had noticed how he often appeared to be bored while at home. She understood that feeling all too well, for living in Ghed'ahre could become boring after a while. There wasn never enough to do in the town of vampires.

"Crumpet, how would you like to take a little trip with me?" Te'ijal asked.

Looking up from his book, he considered the offer for a moment before turning his focus back towards the book in his hands. "I'm not falling for that, wife. You just want to take me to some human village in hopes that I'll get hungry enough and decide to drink from someone."

Te'ijal laughed. "No, silly husband. This is a special trip that I have arranged in honour of your birthday tonight."

For the first forty years or so, they had always gone up to visit one of their friends for Galahad's birthday. Unfortunately, that came to a stop once their friends started to grow ill and die. Neither of them had had the desire to go to the human world for many years after that, but recently, they had gotten back into the habit, and Te'ijal was planning an extra special trip for this year. It was Galahad's hundred-and-fiftieth birthday, and she wanted to make sure that it would be a trip he would enjoy.

This definitely got his attention. Special trip? What exactly did that mean? He got the feeling that this trip was not about eating anyone, and if that was the case, then he supposed it might be safe to accept her offer. Though, he was still slightly wary of her plans. If she wasn't trying to take him out for dinner, then where was she trying to take him?

"May I know where it is we're going, and what we're doing?" he asked.

Te'ijal shook her head. "It's a surprise, now go get ready because we have a long flight, and we need to leave soon to ensure that we can return before the sun rises."

With a sigh, Galahad closed his book and set it down beside him on the sofa. Getting to his feet, he quickly dashed into his room, returning a few moments later with his boots on, his royal blue cloak draped over his broad shoulders, his armor fully intact, and his sword fastened around his waist. He was ready to go.

Te'ijal couldn't help but smirk as she saw standing there. He looked just as dashing as he had the day she first laid eyes on him. He hadn't changed a bit, and that was exactly the way she liked it. How cruel it would have been if she had left this fine man to decay as a human, his body growing old and weary in the blink of an eye. She liked to think that she had saved him from such an awful fate, but of course, he didn't always see it that way.

"Good, let's get going."

Quickly grabbing her bow and quiver full of arrows, she led the way out of the house, closing the door behind her before the two of them took off into the forest, winding in and out among the trees to avoid the group of skeleton guards who liked to give Galahad a hard time whenever he tried to leave. They had defeated them so many times, but they never learned ... probably because they were skeletons, who, in Te'ijal's opinion, were quite short on brains.

Unfortunately, there was one skeleton guard that they knew they couldn't avoid; the gatekeeper. He was one of Gyendal's henchmen, and had been given orders not to let anyone out unless they knew the password. Fortunately, Te'ijal had gotten the password from Arcadia before they left town. She had tried to get it from Gyendal, but he didn't exactly think that celebrating her husbands day of birth was a good enough reason to leave the underworld, so she had been forced to call in a favor from her friend to get it instead.

"Halt!" the skeleton guard declared as they approached the gate. "What is the password."

Galahad glanced back and forth between Te'ijal and the guard. "Password? When did the underworld start using a password?"

"The key system wasn't working, so Gyendal implemented a password system instead." Te'ijal explained to her husband before turning back towards the skeleton guard. "The password is skunk weed."

Nodding his skull, the skeleton guard trudged out of the way, motioning for them to go through. "Enjoy your time in the overworld," he said.

"Thank you, we will," Te'ijal replied.

They made their way through the catacombs, avoiding the traps that had been set out for grave robbers with ease. The moment that they crossed over the threshold into the overworld, Te'ijal transformed into a bat, followed by Galahad a moment later, and the two of them flew off with lightning speed.

With Te'ijal leading the way, they glided through the air, crossing oceans, and passing by different continents. Galahad couldn't help but wonder where in Aia his wife was taking him. What reason could she have for taking him so far away from the mainland? He saw many cities below them, and for some reason he thought that one of them looked oddly like Velderah.

Finally, Te'ijal swooped down as they neared yet another city. This one seemed familiar as well, but try as he might, he couldn't quite grasp why that was. He felt as though he should know it, but for some reason, he was just unable to remember. It was only after they had landed on the beach and transformed back into their regular forms that it finally dawned on him. His eyes widened as the smell of salt water mixed with the smell of finely aged cheese reached his nose. Could it be? After all those years ...

"Wife ... Why are we in Sedona?" he asked.

"I thought you might like to visit your old home town, so I flew out here last week and made some arrangements," Te'ijal replied.

He raised a brow at her. "What sort of arrangements?"

"Follow me and you shall see."

Hesitantly he followed her through the deserted city streets, looking around at the city that he had once called home as he did. It had changed a lot from what he was able to see, and although he was happy to be back, it reminded him of what he had become. The great city had changed so much in the last hundred-and-some years, yet he hadn't changed a bit, and he never would. His family was dead. His king was dead. Rhen and Dameon were dead. Everyone was dead, and try as he might, there seemed to be no way for him to join them.

He was then snapped from his thoughts and came to a halt, as he noticed that Te'ijal had stopped. He took a moment to look around and figure out exactly where they were. They were standing in front of the only building in the city that had yet to change in appearance, and that was the royal palace. It was the royal palace that he himself had served in.

"Why are we in front of the castle?" he asked. "You didn't kill the king did you?"

"Of course not, silly husband," she assured him with a shake of her head.

Grabbing him by the hand, she led him through the castle gate and across the courtyard towards a side gate. Glancing back at him, she gave him a small smirk before pulling the hood of her cloak up over her head, hiding her face, and yanked open the door of the gate. The sight that he was met by on the other side completely astounded him. Enclosed by a wall, closing it off from the castle and the rest of the city, was a beautiful garden with royal roses and topiaries of various forms. The garden was decorated with candles scattered throughout it, giving it a warm glow.

In the middle of the enclosed garden, there stood a statue, which he couldn't fully see from the angle he was standing at, and next to the statue was an elderly man, dressed in fine robes, which suggested to Galahad that he was probably the royal chancellor. However, he was still confused. Why had Te'ijal brought him to a private royal garden? Why did the royal chancellor appear to be waiting for them?

"Welcome back, m'lady," the royal chancellor greeted them with a smile as he came forward. "And this must be your husband. You certainly were not joking when you said the resemblance was striking."

This confused Galahad even more. What was going on? What were they talking about? Who exactly was it that he resembled so greatly? He was about to start asking questions, but was unable to, as the chancellor turned to him and began to speak again.

"Might I just say how pleased I am to meet you, young man. We had no idea that Sir Galahad Teomes the First had any living relatives left. The royal records claimed that he had never married or had children, but then your wife came looking to arrange a surprise for your birthday, and she told us that you were a direct descendant of his!" he exclaimed happily.

Galahad then began to understand what was happening. Te'ijal had told them that he was his own descendant in order to disguise the truth. He had to admit that he was surprised to hear that this man knew who he was. To be honest, Galahad had assumed that he had been completely forgotten along with most of his other travelling companions like Elini, Pirate John, and Mad Marge. He had read history books about Rhen's life, and none of her friends were ever mentioned. Thais might have forgotten about him, but it was nice to see that his home city had not entirely.

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well, good sir. Forgive me, but I had not been aware of my wife's plans until now. This is very much a surprise to me," Galahad said. "What is the purpose of this garden? My ... ancestor never mentioned a private royal garden in his old journals."

"This garden was built several years after his disappearance, and if you will direct your attention towards that statue over there ..." the chancellor said, leading the two of them over to the front of the statue. "As you can see, the statue is of your great ancestor, who, might I add, bears a most striking resemblance to you. There is no doubt that you are related to him."

Galahad gazed up at the statue in silent amazement. He couldn't believe it. He was actually looking at sculpted portrayal of himself. Most times statues ended up looking completely different from the person itself, but not in this case. It looked exactly like him. They had even included the scar over his one eye. His statue stood tall and proud, with sword in hand, just as he once had at his king's side.

"Who had this statue built?" Galahad asked.

"The king your ancestor served under was the one who ordered it to be made. It is said that he enlisted the help of one of your ancestor's fellow members of the guard to draw an image of him from memory. He wanted it to be as accurate as possible, and he had the plaque underneath created to ensure that his Captain of the Royal Guard would be remembered for centuries to come."

Galahad read the words on the plaque carefully. _Death before Dishonor_. Galahad wasn't quite sure how to feel about this statue. Obviously he was flattered, and honored to hear that his king had thought so highly of him, but at the same time, he couldn't help but feel as though the statue shouldn't have been made. The words on the plaque were the motto he had lived by as a human, and he felt that, had his king known his true fate, he would have been ashamed of him.

He had vowed to die rather than be dishonored, and yet there he was, more than a century later, living life as a most dishonorable creature of the night. He was so conflicted. A part of him wanted nothing more than to walk out into the sunlight without sunscreen and just die, but every time he attempted to do so, he would flee back into the shadows again, plagued by guilt at the thought of abandoning the woman he had married.

Even if he had been forced to marry her, he had still vowed to stay by her side, for so long as they both walked the earth. There was some debate over whether their marriage was even technically legal, considering the fact that they were both dead, or rather undead, but in Galahad's mind, there was no doubt about the legality of it. He knew in his heart that it was legal, and so he was obligated to uphold his vows, regardless of whether they were human or vampire. His conscience would not allow him to leave her.

"Thank you for sharing this with us, but we should be going. It's getting late, and I'm sure you are getting tired," Galahad said. "I would appreciate it if you could thank the king as well for allowing us to view the garden at such a late hour."

The chancellor nodded his head. "Of course. You are welcome to come and see it anytime."

With that, Te'ijal and Galahad took their leave, leaving the castle grounds and starting back down the empty city streets. As they walked, Galahad noticed Te'ijal glancing over at him almost expectantly. What exactly she was expecting from him was beyond his comprehension, so he chose to try to ignore her glances.

"So, did you like your birthday surprise?" she asked.

He didn't know what to say. In a way he had, and in a way he hadn't. A part of him was still confused as to why she had gone to such trouble to plan this. Had it been done in hopes that he might become miserable? He had to admit that she did seem to enjoy seeing him miserable, yet in a way it almost seemed as though she had done it with good motives.

"It was definitely surprising," he admitted. "I suppose it was nice to know that I am still remembered."

She seemed pleased by his remark, but made no reply to it. As the beach came into sight, Te'ijal pushed her hood back again, confident that there was no one around to see her. Galahad couldn't help but wonder what the royal chancellor had thought of her. He remembered what he had thought when he first saw her hidden beneath that blood-red cloak of hers. She had been, and still was very much a mystery. There were days that he thought he understood the way she functioned, but then she would do something to prove him wrong, and leave him guessing again. It was both intriguing and frustrating.

"Perhaps I should find a quick snack before we go," Te'ijal suggested. "I'm starting to get a bit thirsty."

"You shall do no such thing, serpent spawn!" he exclaimed.

She gave him a small pout, but made no attempt to slip away. "Oh well, I suppose I shall be able to quench my thirst tomorrow at Viviane's dinner party."

He shook his head at her, watching as she suddenly transformed into a bat and started to fly off. With a sigh, he transformed as well and flew after her. In the end, this trip hadn't been much different from any of their others. As always, she was persistent in trying to convince him to indulge in his vile lust for blood. He often wondered whether she would ever give up. He always reached the exact same conclusion ... Probably not ...


End file.
